


Friend Indeed

by anonymouslaser



Series: Friend in Need [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, reveal aftermath
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-06-02 06:15:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19435597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anonymouslaser/pseuds/anonymouslaser
Summary: A follow up to Friend in Need. What happens after an intervention that turns into a surprise reveal?





	1. Turtle and Fox

The four were just starting to relax and recover from their shock when they heard someone coming up the ladder to Marinette’s room. Sabine pushed the trap door open. “Kids, what’s all this noise abou…”

She stopped and looked at the scene in shock.

“Ladybug! Chat Noir!...Where’s Marinette?”

Ladybug and Chat Noir looked at each other. Ladybug’s face went from confusion to confidence in a moment. Ladybug turned back to Sabine to answer, while Chat Noir got up off the floor.

“We...happened to see an akuma butterfly and tracked it here. It seemed to be after Adrien Agreste. Marinette pulled him up to your balcony while we contained and purified it.”

Sabrina gasped. “That poor boy! He’s too busy. His father is a…” Sabine dropped a rather strong Chinese curse. Chat Noir flinched and made an odd choking noise, but then coughed into his fist to cover it up.

Ladybug glanced at her partner, then back at her mom.

“Uh, well, anyway we have to go.” She gave a pointed look to Chat. “We’ll send them back down on our way out. Come on Chat Noir! Bug out!”

Ladybug launched up the ladder to the balcony. Chat gave the room a grin and a two-finger salute before following her. After some odd noises from the balcony, Marinette poked her head in the trap door. 

“They said it’s safe to come back, yes?”

Sabine moved to the bottom of the ladder. “Yes! Now both of you come down.”

Sabine grabbed her daughter before she reached the floor and wrapped her in a hug. “Oh, an akuma here, again! I’m so glad you’re ok.”

Marinette hugged her mom back, then moved so Adrien could climb down. 

“Mme. Dupain-Cheng, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to put you or anyone in danger. I…”

Adrien was cut off by a hug from Sabine. He went stiff for a moment before resting his head on her shoulder and hugging her back.

“Don’t you apologize! You’re allowed to feel bad sometimes. This is that Hawk Moth villain’s fault.” 

She held him a bit longer, then straightened up with her hands on his shoulders. She examined his face. Adrien blinked back some (hopefully unnoticeable) tears, but he couldn’t hide his puffy eyes from a mother.

Sabine looked at him with a compassion that he had not seen for some time. It threatened to undo Adrien’s composure, but before it could, Sabine let him go and looked around at everyone. “I think you should all stay for dinner. Call your parents to check.” She poked Adrien in the ribs, making him yelp. “And you need more meat on your bones.” 

She turned and went down the steps, mumbling about “lots of dumplings” and more unprintable Chinese curses about Hawkmoth.

Adrien stood where he was and stared at the three of them in turn, ending with Marinette. Marinette dipped her head and held her hand over her mouth. She alternated between staring at Adrien and anything else. Alya and Nino looked back and forth between the two.

Adrien brushed his hand through his hair, ending on the back of his neck. “So you’re...you _all_ are...then _we_ are...huh.”

After an awkward silence, Nino jumped in. “I couldn’t have said it better.” 

They shared an uncomfortable chuckle.

Alya’s eyes went suddenly wide. “You didn’t know, did you? Either of you?”

Both Marinette and Adrien spared her a glance and shook their heads. 

Alya thought for a moment, then put on a look of determination. 

“Oh girlfriend, I love you. Thank you for picking me to be Rena Rouge. I wish you had told me, or could have told me, or...ufh” Alya got up and hugged her bestie. “Anyway, I think you two have a lot to talk about.” Alya pulled away to arms lengths and gave Marinette a pointed look. “And you may as well start now. Why don’t you both head up to the balcony. Nino and I will wait here and keep your mom from coming up.”

Alya then proceeded to push (“nudge” as she claimed later) the two shocked teens up the ladder.

“Alyyyaaa…” Marinette started.

“Nuh-uh, no stalling, rip the band-aid off and _talk.”_

The two wide-eyes heroes were bulldozed up the ladder to the balcony. Alya closed the hatch, leaving her alone with Nino.

Alya’s determined grin dropped as she turned and sat on the chaise. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes. Nino quickly sat beside her.

“They were right there beside us, all this time.” She paused. “I just don’t know how to think about this.”

“It is crazy.”

Alya sniffed and wiped her nose. “I wish she’d told me. I guess she doesn’t trust us that much. Trust _me_ that much…”

Nino put an arm around her shoulder and thought a moment. “You know, she picked you first.”

Alya rubbed her eyes and turned to look at Nino. “What?”

“Well, she didn’t know Adrien was...Chat Noir…” Nino gave an odd twitch but continued, “and we didn’t hear of any other heroes before Rena Rouge, so, she did pick you first, of every one of us. She must have trusted you and wanted you with her.”

Alya’s frown turned to a small smile.

“Yeah...yeah, she did.”

Alya looked up at the trap door to the balcony.

“I may still have a freak out later.”

“Fair enough.”

“So, how come you’re so chill about this?”

Nino leaned back but kept his eyes on his girlfriend. “I _am_ a super hero.”

Alya gave him a deeply unimpressed look. “Yeah. Part-time. And you’re not the only one”

Nino sighed. “I’m saving my freak out for later. I have to take care of my dudes first.”

Alya leaned over and put her head on her boyfriend’s chest. “You’re sweet.”

At that moment an uncomfortable but genuine laugh came from the balcony. Both teens looked up and grinned.

Alya sighed. “We should do some double dates. It might help while they figure things out.”

Nino put an arm back around Alya’s shoulder. “Totally.”

Suddenly, a red kwami phased through the ceiling, dragging a black kwami with her.

“(come on you) Hi, I’m Tikki! This is Plagg. I’m glad to meet you both, finally.”

The two teens smiled back. The black kwami hovered and grunted.

“Same here little dudes! Hey, how are they doing up there?”

Tikki glanced up at the trap door. “I...think they’ll be ok. They started talking a bit. Finally. So, we decided…”

“You decided,” interjected the black kwami.

“... _we_ decided,” Tikki continued, “to give them some space.” 

The four could hear talking from the balcony now, though not what was said. 

“Come on Plagg, we can wait here for them to come back down.”

Plagg grunted again and looked at the teens. He alighted on the chaise near Alya and curled up as if to sleep. Alya gently picked up Plagg, held him in her palm, and pet him like a kitten. Plagg almost started protesting, but was soon purring. Tikki settled on Nino’s knee. The four were quiet for a few minutes until they heard a noise. Alya looked up.

“I think they’re coming back down.”


	2. Cat and Bug

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien and Marinette have to get through some awkward conversation.

Adrien went up the ladder second, and was practically ejected from the trap door by Alya. He found the same pleasant view as previous times he had been on the balcony, including the pretty girl. He saw her standing but curled in slightly on herself and holding herself.

He realized neither of them had any idea what to say. Yes, he could see the physical resemblance now that he looked. It seemed crazy he couldn’t before. And, she was definitely an “everyday ladybug.” He noticed the view from the edge of his vision and a memory suddenly came to him.  
“Oh no.” Adrien slowly sat down on something. A chair, hopefully.

Marinette looked at him with wide eyes. “What?”

“Evillustrator. That was...you I was flexing for.”

“Yeah.” Mainette sniggered. They shared an uncomfortable moment as the floodgate of memory opened.

“Oh - Gorizilla! That was you...or, both of you! And you couldn’t transform after you jumped...”

“Animan! Marinette jumped in a dinosaur!”

“And Timebreaker! That was you that took the hit!”

“And Glaciator. That was you. Both of you. I mean...I talked about you...to you...oh man.” 

“And Volpina! That’s how you knew it wasn’t Adrien...uh, you…”

“Wait. Back up to Glaciator. You...uh, Ladybug, said you liked someone else, besides me...Chat Noir me. But later, you...Marinette...said you liked me...Chat Noir me.” Adrien cocked his head in confusion but said nothing else.

Marinette could only look guilty.

“Are you just...toying with me?” The words snuck out quietly before he could stop them.

Marinette sat down, hugged herself, and looked at her shoes. “No. No, I was afraid.” She looked up at him and his face nearly broke her heart. Her determination kicked in as she took a deep breath.

“I thought you were about to figure out my identity, right here. I thought I had to come up with something to distract you as fast as possible. That’s what I came up with.” 

“So you didn’t...really like…?” 

Adrien looked wilted.

Marinette took a deep breath and forced herself to look him in the eye. “Adrien it’s you. You’re the one I’ve had a crush on this year. You’re the one I was talking about on the rooftop. I didn’t know you were the same guy. I don’t…” she trailed off.

Adrien stared back open mouthed. He finally found his voice. “How long?” Adrien’s question was almost a whisper.

“Since you gave me your umbrella.”

“I fell for you during Stoneheart.”

They both stared at each other for a few seconds before Adrien broke the silence.

“So...we basically fell for each other, but the wrong person of each other?”

“Heh, I guess so.”

“Maybe that explains Oblivio, at least the photo.”

They both blushed and looked away.

Suddenly a small voice joined in. “Ugh, I’m huuuuungry! Where is my cheese?!?”

Adrien facepalmed. Marinette giggled as two kwamis appeared and floated before them. 

Tikki gave Plagg a fierce look. “Plagg! Rude!”

“Oh, sorry kid, that’s Tikki. Hey Marinette. Now...cheese?”

The two teens shared a laugh as Adrien pulled a morsel of cheese from a pocket. It disappeared quickly.

Tikki grabbed Plagg and started dragging him to the floor. “We’ll leave you two to talk,” she said over her shoulder as she phased through.

Adrien looked up. “I apologize for Plagg. He can be a pain.”

“It’s ok. I know it helps to have a friend you can talk to about anything, even superhero stuff.”

“Yeah, it does.”

“Well, now all four of us know and we can all talk about it.”

Adrien’s eyes went wide. “OH! Oh Ladybug! You tried so hard to keep identities secret and...just out of the blue I messed it all up…” Adrien trailed off and looked down. “I’m sorry.”

Marinette jumped up and sat beside him. After a moment’s hesitation, she put her arm around his shoulders. “It’s ok. You can’t help all this stress you’re under. We...your friends...noticed and want to help, and we still want to help, but now we can actually help better as we all have more of the truth.” 

Marinette leaned into his side and put her head on his shoulder. “Honestly, I’m tired of all the lies I have to tell too. This is...kinda nice.”

Adrien rested his head on hers. “Yeah, this is nice.”

They both blushed at the double meaning and mutually sat up straight.

Adrien turned to her and gave her a very Chat like grin, though he rubbed the back of his neck at the same time. “So, uh, does this mean Chat Noir can take Ladybug out for coffee sometime in the near future?”

Marinette looked at him and gave a very Ladybug smile. “No, but I think Marinette would say yes if Adrien did.”

“Tomorrow? After school?”

“But you have fencing.”

“Oh right. After that? Or maybe I can skip...”

“Let’s start with after fencing.”

“Okay.”

Genuine smiles bloomed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whelp, I think I'm all out of ideas for this. Friend in Need does stand on its own, so feel free to make up for yourself how this aftermath would go. This is my version. I'm convinced a reveal will be awkward at first and Marinette made it rather worse in Weredad, so that will have to be dealt with at some point.
> 
> Hope y'all enjoy. Constructive criticism always welcome.


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